It is hard to see the justification for the Archbishop of Canterbury's allegation that liberals are to blame for the rift in the Anglican communion (Report, August 4). Liberals have come to their current conclusions because they have heeded previous Lambeth conference resolutions. The crisis is because many traditionalists have refused to do this. Rather than listen to gay people (resolutions in 1978, 1988 and 1998), the church has silenced them. The resolutions in 1978 and 1988 called for deep and dispassionate study "which would take seriously both the teaching of scripture and the results of scientific and medical research", yet the Anglican communion office in London only contacted the Royal College of Psychiatrists for information last year when we urged them to do so. Is it any wonder then that some Anglican bishops still deny the existence of gay people in their countries? Liberals study the scriptures but also recognise that they have been used to oppress as well as liberate people in the past. And whatever happened to the call to Anglican provinces to assess human rights in relation to homosexual people? Gloucester Cathedral's memorial to Holocaust victims includes a remembrance of homosexual people alongside others who were targeted, but the targeting of gay victims continues and the Anglican communion is silent, and some bishops even support such laws in their countries.

In the early church, the admission of Gentiles before official permission was granted was a hotly debated dispute; thank God the archbishop did not chair the meeting in Jerusalem that discussed it - we might not have a church at all today!Rev Gillian Cooke and Dr Alan SheardNorth Ferriby, East Yorkshire

Your leader (August 4) has us Anglicans divided into "liberal" and "evangelical" camps at war over homosexuality. I do not recognise myself as a member of either camp, and neither, I think, would most Anglicans. If asked whether I wish to align myself with Nigerian fundamentalism or American liberalism, I would answer: "Neither of the above." I flatter myself that the Archbishop of Canterbury would entirely agree with me in this.

Turning to the Media section, I find a letter from Dr Anne Summers of Birkbeck College assuring me that the Church of England was the creation of Tudor and Stuart monarchs. This is a contention of Roman Catholic controversialists, but is not accepted by Anglicans. My efforts to find Dr Summers' area of specialist knowledge were complicated by Google's tendency to direct me to the eponymous vendor of naughty underwear, but I gather that she is not a church historian. Jon Cannon's recent book on English cathedrals says that the chapter of York Minster is probably the oldest continually existing corporate body in England. While the shortcomings of Anglo-Saxon record-keeping make absolute certainty impossible, the other contenders are the chapters of two other Church of England cathedrals - Hereford and Saint Paul's.Alan T HarrisonWalsall, West Midlands